


Panic and Elation

by chicago_ruth



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Curtain Fic, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-06
Updated: 2013-10-06
Packaged: 2017-12-28 15:02:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/993295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicago_ruth/pseuds/chicago_ruth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being with Merlin is so different from anybody else Gwaine has been with. It leaves him unsettled, unsure, but somehow content. (Or: absolute fluff.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Panic and Elation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tassos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tassos/gifts).



> I kind of see this fitting in with my other M/Gwaine modern AUs, but this is a standalone fic, so you don't need to read them to understand this. 
> 
> And Happy Birthday, Tassos! ♥

The alarm rang shrill and loud, jolting Gwaine out of sleep. He had to blink in the dark and really concentrate on focusing before he could read the numbers on the clock LED.

6:45 am.

Fuck. They'd forgotten to turn the alarm off for the weekend. Gwaine groaned and reached out to hit the "shut the fuck up" button, his arm brushing against Merlin as he did so.

Merlin mumbled something and burrowed closer to Gwaine.

Gwaine wished he had the power to sleep through alarms, but he barely had the power to sleep through Merlin coming home late, despite Merlin's best efforts to be as quiet as possible. At least it wasn't usually too hard to get _back_ to sleep, especially when he had a warm body pillow. Gwaine gave Merlin a light kiss and settled back in.

Just when he started drifting off again, he felt Merlin's finger wrap around his cock.

"I could... blow you..." Merlin mumbled. 

Gwaine did some mental math. If it was almost 7am now, that meant his last orgasm had been.... four hours ago. Which had been the second one for the night. A part of him wanted to say that four hours was plenty of time to recuperate, but he didn't have the energy to even pretend to be into it.

"S'not happening, Merlin. Too tired." And if anybody had told Gwaine he would ever turn down sex, he'd have called them crazy.

Merlin stroked him a bit more, just lightly, but even that stilled. A quick glance confirmed that Merlin was asleep again. Or, more likely, he hadn't been awake in the first place. Just as well. Gwaine carefully moved Merlin's hand away and then let himself fall back asleep.

\--

The second alarm that went off was intentional, but Gwaine still groaned and covered his head with the pillow to block out the sound. The slap he got on his thigh was anything but tired.

"Rise and shine! We have places to be." 

Damn, but Merlin sounded chipper. Gwaine clung to his pillow, but Merlin could be strong when he wanted to be. The pillow was wrestled out of his grasp and he was left blinking against the light, Merlin's phone still blaring its alarm.

Merlin himself was already mostly dressed, and from the smell of it, he'd taken a shower too. How did Merlin manage to go from completely lazy to raring to go in just-- Gwaine glanced at the clock-- four hours? 

"We don't _have_ to go anywhere," Gwaine needled. "We could stay in bed. I'll take you up on that blowjob now."

Merlin gave him a crooked smile. "What?"

Gwaine sighed. "Guess you don't remember. You offered to blow me this morning, when the alarm went off." He kicked the comforter off and spread his legs a little, to get Merlin's memory jogging. 

"I dunno," Merlin said. "It looks like a lot of work."

"Work?" Gwaine jiggled his hips a bit, which made Merlin laugh, but he didn't come any closer.

"Yeah. I'd have to get over there and get you hard, and then I'd have to go a bit longer for you to even come, and then there's all the cleanup involved, and then you still wouldn't be out of bed yet." Merlin was smiling, but Gwaine was pretty sure he was being serious too.

So he pouted, but he let Merlin pull him out of bed and herd him towards the bathroom. 

"Be quick, we need to get going in twenty minutes!"

Gwaine stole a quick kiss and then did as he was told. Never mind that he didn't want to go meet up with Arthur and his friends. Merlin wanted to, and Gwaine didn't really have it in his heart to say no.

\--

It wasn't even that Gwaine didn't like Arthur -- no, wait, scratch that. It was definitely that he didn't like Arthur. But he freely admitted that under other circumstances, Arthur would have been one of the blokes he hung out with and occasionally fooled around with, if Arthur were in any way so inclined.

Gwaine had a pretty good track record of convincing people that they were so inclined.

Just this once, though, Gwaine was glad that somebody was 100% straight, because fuck, the way Merlin doted on Arthur's every word made it pretty clear that Merlin would have hopped into bed with him if Arthur so much as raised his eyebrows suggestively.

It was pretty hard to play frisbee and not accidentally-on-purpose throw the frisbee right at Arthur's face.

For Merlin's sake, he managed to be civil. And hey, he actually did like the other guys they played with. Percy, Elyan, Lance, and Leon were all pretty cool, and he liked that Lance and Percy seemed to be there more for Merlin than for Arthur, and Leon was sometimes really close to Arthur and sometimes didn't seem to want to look him straight in the eye at all.

They were all easy on the eyes too. Gwaine watched a drop of sweat trail down Elyan's neck and this time, it really was an accident that he flung the frisbee far outside of Arthur's range. Merlin laughed when Arthur tried to jump for it anyway.

"Orkney! Stop fooling around!" Arthur groused once he'd retrieved the frisbee. "You've been off form since the start!"

Gwaine flipped him the bird, and the others laughed. When Arthur looked over at Merlin, Merlin shrugged. "It's just a game, Arthur. Don't take it so seriously."

They'd been playing for over an hour, and Gwaine was just about done anyway. "I'm kind of hungry. Anybody else up for food?"

Arthur looked like he wanted to protest, but Leon quickly chimed in, and then the others, leaving Arthur outnumbered. It did feel good to have some sway in the group, Gwaine could admit that, and as they all packed up the few things they had--frisbee, soccer ball, a few discarded sunglasses and baseball hats -- yeah, getting out wasn't so bad. Plus, Merlin looked amazing with his face flushed from activity.

\--

They got back to Merlin's apartment at around 7pm, which was so early that Gwaine almost thought he was reading the clock wrong. What had happened to the days when he spent every weekend out partying, when he refused to go home unless he'd drunk at least half his weight in alcohol and made out with three hot strangers?

"Man, I'm beat. Do you want to just watch a movie?" Merlin asked, slumping into the couch.

"Yeah, sure." Gwaine grabbed a beer from the fridge for both of them and then joined Merlin. They channel surfed until they found something horrible and cheesy, and Merlin started commenting on this or that special effect.

Gwaine stroked Merlin's back, and strangely didn't actually feel any desire to do anything than just that. Merlin occasionally reached up to play with Gwaine's ear piercings, but it was an absent-minded thing, not really a lead-up to anything.

During a commercial break, Merlin said, "Today's my birthday."

It took a moment for Gwaine to process that. _Birthday_. Should he have known that? Was Merlin mad that Gwaine hadn't done anything special?

Merlin didn't look mad though. "That's why Gwen and Morgana weren't there today. I mean, Gwen is always welcome, but Morgana and I don't really get along, and I guess Arthur figured he'd give us both a break on my birthday. Also he bought me a ridiculously expensive pair of sunglasses, because, quote unquote, I look stupid squinting in the sun."

"I'm sorry," Gwaine blurt out, his chest suddenly starting to feel tight and his legs jittering with tension. His arm around Merlin, which had seemed so comfortable just seconds ago, was now aching.

Merlin frowned at him. "Sorry? For what?"

"I didn't get you anything." Unlike perfect Arthur, who had the money to drop on frivolous gifts and somehow knew exactly what Merlin wanted and--

Merlin kissed his cheek. "Gwaine, that's fine. I don't really expect gifts. Arthur's the only person who ever got me anything, and it's awkward every time. Besides, I never told you my birthday."

Gwaine's breathing became slightly easier again. "We could go out somewhere, to celebrate?"

"I _am_ celebrating." There was a slight smile on Merlin's face. "I'm spending an evening with my favorite person. How much better could my birthday get?"

It was strange, to be caught up in panic and elation all at once. _Gwaine_ was Merlin's favorite. Take that, Arthur. But at the same time, fuck, he was Merlin's _favorite_. That was a lot of responsibility. He could already see himself fucking up somehow, and then Gwaine would be left going to clubs at all hours and making out with people he didn't even fucking like.

"Do you want a blow job?" Gwaine said instead, because it was a pretty safe bet that people liked orgasms on their birthdays, and sex was a lot easier than thinking about all the other stuff that involved being somebody's favorite.

Merlin laughed and kissed his jaw again. "Sure, later. When the movie is done."

Maybe it should have bothered him, to be relegated to _after the movie_ , but he spent the next half hour just stroking and petting and kissing Merlin. Maybe there was something to be said for the slow, quiet kind of birthday.

And maybe he could, someday soon, admit what Merlin meant to him.


End file.
